Executive embezzled $1.3 million from Kentucky health care non-profit
A one-time executive at a Kentucky medical-consulting company has admitted embezzling more than $1.3 million.
Thomas Samuels pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to a charge of theft from an organization that receives federal money.
Thomas was chief financial officer at Sterling Medical Consultants, a Louisville company that provided consulting and other services to doctors and associations in Kentucky, according to a court document.
The Kentucky Primary Care Association, a non-profit based in Frankfort that helps medical providers in under-served parts of the state, bought Sterling in July 2016 and so owned whatever money it made after that, the charge against Samuels said.
Samuels wrote unauthorized checks from Sterling’s bank account to himself and to Commonwealth Nursing Services, a company in which he had a financial interest, according to the court document.
Samuels embezzled a total of $1,386,000 between July 2016 and mid-2019, his plea agreement said.
He has repaid $339,695 of that amount, so owes just over $1 million in additional restitution to the association.
The maximum penalty on the theft charge is 10 years in prison.
Samuels is to be sentenced in July in U.S. District Court in Frankfort.
